New ambition to reduce avoidable
harm, cut costs and save 6,000 lives.
A new ambition to reduce
avoidable harm in the NHS by half over the next three years, cut costs and save
up to 6,000 lives has been outlined by Jeremy Hunt. In a speech at Virginia
Mason Hospital in Seattle, the Secretary of State has announced details of how
NHS organisations can work together to improve patient safety and save
money.
Each NHS organisation will be
invited to ‘Sign up to Safety’ and set out publicly their ambitious
plans for reducing avoidable harm, such as medication errors, blood clots and
bed sores over the next three years. The NHS Litigation Authority, which
indemnifies trusts against law suits, has agreed to review the plans and, when
approved, reduce the premiums paid by all hospitals successfully implementing
them. Every year the NHS spends as much as £1.3 billion on litigation
claims.
The government will also
introduce a Duty of Candour, making openness and honesty the norm across all
health and social care organisations. It will mean providers must notify the
patient about incidents where ‘significant harm’ has occurred and
provide an apology.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt
said:
It is my clear ambition that the
NHS should become the safest healthcare system anywhere in the world. I want
the tragic events of Mid Staffs to become a turning point in the creation of a
more open, compassionate and transparent culture within the
NHS.
We now have a once in a
generation opportunity to save lives and prevent avoidable harm – which
will empower staff and save money that can be re-invested in patient care.
Hospitals are already “signing up to safety” as part of this new
movement - and I hope all NHS organisations will soon join
them.
Hospitals are now being
approached to pledge their support to the movement and all trusts will receive
an invitation to join over the next few months.
Other plans to improve patient
safety as part of the package include:
-
Consulting on the threshold for
duty of candour to include significant harm, as part of the Care Quality
Commission’s (CQC) registration requirements (as recommended by the
Dalton-Williams review)
-
Recruiting 5,000 safety
champions as local change agents, identifying where there is unsafe care and
developing solutions to fix it
-
Creating a new Safety Action for
England (SAFE) team that will consist of senior clinicians, managers and
patients with a proven track record in tackling unsafe care. They will ensure
that fast, flexible and intensive support is available where it is needed
most
-
Launching a dedicated section of
the NHS Choices website in June called ‘How Safe is my Hospital’.
The online tool will give everyone the ability to compare hospitals in England
across a range of patient safety indicators
-
Developing new reliable measures
of avoidable hospital death rates and severe harm
A strong reporting culture,
where safety incidents are reported and monitored is essential to improving
safety. The measures announced today are likely to lead to an increase in the
numbers of reported harm in the NHS even though care will be getting safer. NHS
England will lead a project to accurately assess whether a hospital is
reporting fewer, more or an expected number of incidents.
After an avoidable patient
incident where a woman was accidently injected with cleaning fluid around ten
years ago, Virginia Mason hospital in Seattle has turned itself around to
become one of the safest hospitals in the world.
Virginia Mason Chairman and CEO
Gary S. Kaplan, MD said:
Patient safety is our number one
priority. We’re honored that the Health Secretary is advancing changes in
England’s health system based in part on the value he sees in our
commitment and dedication to always putting patients first.
Background
information
-
In a consultation on the Duty of
Candour, published today, it is proposed that the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
will include the Duty of Candour as part of its registration requirements. This
will mean every organisation registered with the CQC will have to be open about
all cases of significant harm including death, severe harm and moderate harm,
including prolonged psychological harm.
-
Virginia Mason hospital in
Seattle employs more than 5,600 people and includes a 336-bed acute-care
hospital; a primary and specialty care group practice of more than 460
physicians.